Will crowd-funding a 'Friday Night Lights' movie work? -- POLL

Producer Brian Grazer, and his company Imagine Entertainment, would very much like to crowd-fund the long-rumored Friday Night Lights movie. (The series, itself adapted from a film, ran for five seasons on NBC, ending in 2011.) “We made a terrific feature with Pete Berg, turned it into a terrific TV series and will now make a movie from that series. I’m not sure such a thing has been done before,” Grazer toldDeadline. Grazer is out of the country and unavailable for comment, though Imagine told us that while discussions are ongoing, there are no plans yet.

The question isn’t really, “Why crowd-funding?” The last six months have brought a new prominence to the process, and to its most most famous Internet platform, which has successfully launched multi-million dollar film projects with Veronica Marsand Zach Braff. (Sorry, Melissa Joan Hart). Let’s ignore the fact that, yes of course, a Friday Night Lights movie should happen. And let’s set aside the ethical-economic questions that have started to tie everyone up – Kickstarter is cheating! These people are cheating with Kickstarter! Equity should be legal! What’s equity? – and instead ask, “Would crowd-funding a Friday Night Lights movie even work?”

My guess is yes. Even its final seasons (airing on actual summertime Friday nights) averaged more than 3 million primetime viewers, according to TV By the Numbers, which is a bigger number than Mars. Plus FNL belongs to that same pantheon of perma-buzzy shows – the ones that are Gone Too Soon and that You’re Not Watching. Remember, buzzy fans are the best kind of fans to have because they don’t forget about you.

But what do you think: If Brian Grazer and his team launch an effort to crowd-fund the Friday Night Lights movie, will you come? More importantly: Will everyone else?